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Just to summarize some negatives with the current state of UTEP Athletics.

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So I think that pretty much everybody can agree that UTEP Athletics currently has a bad image problem right now with the average El Paso fan. That is validated with the declining attendance. At some point, don't results have to start falling on the Director of Athletics?

We didn't get here overnight, this has been a long trend downward. There is a lack of connection between UTEP and the missing fans that they need to get back. Here are some of the negative things that have happened, which have lead UTEP to it's current situation:


- UTEP's official Twitter account criticized the skills of our own player during a game. Yeah, that actually happened.
- Tim Floyd held off-season Press Conference and got into highly publicized altercation with local media.
- Football team has only had 5 Home Games in 3 out of 5 years(counting next season).
- Football team got blown out 66-14(and did not get a single defensive stop during the entire game), in front of the biggest crowd of the season.
- Two different Basketball Players have left UTEP early to turn pro.....despite not even having a chance at being drafted.
- Football has had losing seasons in 10 of the last 11 years.
- Basketball has not won a NCAA Tournament game in 24 years.
- Football has not won a Bowl Game in 49 years.
- Basketball has had home losses against: Norfolk State, UT Arlington, Southeast Louisiana, New Orleans.
- UTEP has been reduced to playing in a conference that is the equivalent of playing in the Sun Belt from 10 years ago.
- The tailgating rules for football were changed in a way that irritated a percentage of the fan base.
- Basketball has lost 6 of the last 7 games against our biggest rival NMSU.
- Star Basketball Recruit signed, then didn't want to come. Right or wrong, some negative national attention came our way when we then refused to let that player out of his scholarship and then that player tried to create an excuse and fought us for his release.
- Best Football Player(and genuinely good person) got arrested for DUI.
- Basketball team has had yearly turnover and players leaving at a level that has never been seen here before.
- Basketball team has had yearly discipline issues/internal conflicts/general drama issues at a level that we have not seen here before.
- Basketball player was shown verbally cussing out an Assistant Coach on National TV.
- Basketball team had to self-report and kick 3 players out of school for gambling.
- Our current conference has lost 7 members recently and now has one of the worst TV Deals of any conference in America.
- Previous Football Coach was allowed to stay way too long(7 consecutive losing seasons). Right or wrong, the current Head Football Coach now has a consensus perception amongst the community of following that same path.
- Basketball Staff had altercation with Alford and UNM Staff prior to NIT game(from Fanaticoog).
- Floyd got into publicized altercation with Andy Enfield at hospitality event during Holiday Tournament(from Fanaticoog).
- Floyd and Assistant Coach made national news after being ejected at ECU game and removed with Police escort(from Fanaticoog).

After all of this, is there any wonder why UTEP has fallen as low as it has fallen? And this doesn't even cover the first two Head Basketball Coaches that our current Athletic Director hired. One got arrested for drunk driving while he was our Head Coach. The other Head Basketball Coach got a student pregnant, then began missing recruiting trips because he instead chose to stay at the airport bar and get drunk.......and yet despite this over-the-top craziness, that Coach wasn't even fired, instead he was able to resign for personal reasons. All of this listed above has happened under our current Athletic Director's watch. This is a lot of black eyes for an athletic department to overcome. At some point, doesn't a Director have to be held responsible for what has happened under his direction?
 
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What did the tweet say? I assume it was deleted?

It looks even worse when you see all of that written out.
 
It's time

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The AD isn't going to fire himself any more than the FB coach is going to step down on his own. It's up to Dr. Natalicio to make the decision to clean house. I get the impression that she and Stull are on good terms, even friends. Hard to fire your friends but she has to do it.
 
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Unfortunately the problem extends beyond the average El Paso fan. The sports program is in many ways the "face" of the university. Right now, that "face" is an absolute embarrassment for those of us die-hard Miner fan and alumni outside of the area. As such, the current state of the athletics program should not only be considered a failure for Stull, but more importantly, Dr. Natalicio. As mentioned, this downward spiral did not start overnight, and would take a significant amount of time and investment to try to rectify. In my opinion, that change needs to start at the top.
 
I don't like to pin this on age since I'm up there myself but Dr. Natalicio turned 77 in Aug while Stull turned 71 in Nov. Whether that's part of the problem or just lack of interest on Natalicio's part, a change in AD's is badly needed at the very least.
 
All I can think of is that the inaction related to coaching changes must be money-related.

While there is clearly money to get some good stuff done on the academic side, there must not be much to get things done on the athletic side.

And - speaking strictly from a college faculty standpoint, I'd be OK with that. I really would. I understand the comment about athletics being the "front porch" of a university. But faculty members being productive (publishing papers, getting grants, etc.) does not depend on how good a sports team is.

Normally, having good sports teams helps attract students - but unless UTEP's enrollment in the past decade has taken a nose dive, there might not be much need to make a change.

Just my two cents.

lieb
 
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The only thing I disagree with is c USA being like the sun belt!! And some of the things that have happened with the players Floyd has zero control over players going pro or not wanting to fulfill a commitment or being a baby about being benched..... conference USA I think at least the top 6-7 will be very good basketball conference over time.... western Kentucky just signed a great recruiting class.... old dominion just barely lost to Louisville in overtime... then Uab is always strong, mid tenn state is historically a good program... la tech is tough as well and if utep can get rolling that's 6 good teams right there without even mentioning charlotte who has had good teams at times... the problems with the conference is the fau fiu north Texas teams
 
Oh sweet cheezus! Nothing, nothing will compare to David Lee football or Jason Rabadeaux basketball. And for the record, Haskins himself did a lot of stupid stuff, too! But one is long gone and the latter two are dead. I just don't want to see players quit during a live game and I saw that during the tail end of Lee's tenure. Its disgusting to hear that the opposing team is asking "UTEP" players "you all gonna play, or what?!" and that happened under Lee. There a couple thousand in the stands, Texas recruits joke at your program, and the coach is utterly clueless, that was David Lee UTEP football. Sean Kugler is teetering very close to that era, and if it wasn't for the Jones brothers and Metz, things would be even worse than what Lee created. However, Jones and Metz give hope: They're local kids who excel at the highest level of college football and are doing it right in our backyard.

If Jones declares after the last game and Kugler comes back, Stull is sunk and he damn well knows it! We don't need to beat this horse over and over.

As for Floyd, unlike Kugler, he has had winning seasons at UTEP, but not good enough for the NCAA tourney. We, including myself, thought we hit the mothetload when he came back for less pay. We all knew his history off and on the court, we all knew he has a big ego, we all knew he was confrontational and the list goes on; but yet we all turned a blind eye, so here we are as of now! Don't blame Stull, we need to blame ourselves. Stull is a public state employee, he has to answer to us.

So what do we do? You can go to his office and ask to see him if your a ticket holder, but he's not going to see you and as the Men's Warehouse owner always says on TV, "I guarantee it!". Flood Kappy's email, he's been putting it all over his social media for fans to respond. Tell the local sports reporters to stop throwing softball questions and for Stull to go totally public on how is he going to fix two sinking ships that happen to be major revenue programs. Fans collectively got energized after Nord got fired, and at that time, demanded Stull to hire a recently disgraced former 'bama coach. There was a massive online petition, I signed it myself. Fans and alums from all over signed it. Mike Price was moved by it, and so was Kugler, but in a different way because he really wanted the job at that time. Bo Pellini was the hottest young assistant desperately wanting a head coaching gig at that time but fans demanded Price.

So, money does talk and UTEP is hurting for it. Stull is egotistical, but he's not stupid. He did do a lot of good things for UTEP. Just demand immediate action and answers, from his mouth to our ears. But things have been way worse. Way, way worse.
 
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Oh sweet cheezus! Nothing, nothing will compare to David Lee football or Jason Rabadeaux basketball. And for the record, Haskins himself did a lot of stupid stuff, too!............
...But things have been way worse. Way, way worse.

So is this the current Mission Statement for UTEP Athletics?

UTEP Athletics: Where things have been worse, way, way, worse!

By the way, above you say that "nothing will compare to Jason Rabadeaux basketball". Yet Rabadeaux actually won a Post Season NIT Game at UTEP during his 3 seasons here. Our current Basketball Coach is in his 7th year here, but has not won a single post season game yet.
 
So, money does talk and UTEP is hurting for it. Stull is egotistical, but he's not stupid. He did do a lot of good things for UTEP. Just demand immediate action and answers, from his mouth to our ears. But things have been way worse. Way, way worse.
I remember reading an article about a year ago and it said UTEP has the highest recruiting budget out of all the CUSA schools and I think the highest amount paid to their assistant coaches too. I don't think UTEP is hurting for money as bad as you think when Floyd has the highest recruiting budget in CUSA to work with and has produced subpar results. I think the term "bad return on our investment" is more like it, not hurting for money.
 
I remember reading an article about a year ago and it said UTEP has the highest recruiting budget out of all the CUSA schools and I think the highest amount paid to their assistant coaches too. I don't think UTEP is hurting for money as bad as you think when Floyd has the highest recruiting budget in CUSA to work with and has produced subpar results. I think the term "bad return on our investment" is more like it, not hurting for money.
A year ago from La Tech paper mentions UTEP leads the conference in recruiting budget.
http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/sp...wins-lowest-recruiting-expenses-usa/70635208/
 
Don't forget about the volleyball team that finished 8- 21 overall (5-9 in Conference USA play) this season. Never have made an NCAA appearance or won a league title in either the WAC or C- USA.
The softball team finished last season at 23- 32 (13-11 in conference play), but made the conference tournament for the first time after missing out six years in a row.
 
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All I can think of is that the inaction related to coaching changes must be money-related.

While there is clearly money to get some good stuff done on the academic side, there must not be much to get things done on the athletic side.

And - speaking strictly from a college faculty standpoint, I'd be OK with that. I really would. I understand the comment about athletics being the "front porch" of a university. But faculty members being productive (publishing papers, getting grants, etc.) does not depend on how good a sports team is.

Normally, having good sports teams helps attract students - but unless UTEP's enrollment in the past decade has taken a nose dive, there might not be much need to make a change.

Just my two cents.

lieb
All true but does the UTEP admin intend to present an anemic athletic department that is content to bring up the rear in C-USA or do they have bigger goals? At the very least I would expect that if they wish to compete in C-USA, they will want to defray the costs of the athletic department by selling tickets to MBB and FB. They can't do that with such under performing programs. The FB team has had 10 seasons where it averaged over 30k per game and 9 of those were over 35k with the best being 47k. I think El Paso has proven it will buy a lot of tickets when the product is decent and that would allow the FB program to support the entire department and the MBB program to support itself with some left over. I would think a little more effort and investment is called for in those two programs. If not, then maybe the university should consider either dropping football or the entire athletic department if they really don't care about it's success. Winning at the major sports not only brings in gate/parking/concession receipts to pay for athletics but also brings in more donations and more sales of UTEP gear which helps as well. There are also unmeasured benefits for the El Paso area since bigger crowds equals more butts in local restaurants, pubs, etc. Even the mindset/morale of the city can be enhanced by more successful athletics at UTEP.
 
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